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Handlebars VS EJS

Compare Handlebars VS EJS and see what are their differences

Handlebars logo Handlebars

Handlebars is a JavaScript template library that is, more or less, based on ...

EJS logo EJS

An open source JavaScript Template library.
  • Handlebars Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-28
  • EJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-11

Handlebars features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Handlebars provides a straightforward and easy-to-learn syntax for templating, making it accessible for developers with varying levels of experience.
  • Logic-less Templates
    Encourages the separation of logic and design by only allowing minimal logic in templates. This promotes a cleaner code base and separation of concerns.
  • Extensibility
    Handlebars allows for custom helpers and partials which enable extending the templating functionality as needed.
  • Precompilation
    Templates can be precompiled, improving performance by reducing client-side parsing and rendering time.
  • Wide Adoption and Community Support
    As a popular templating engine, Handlebars has a large community of users and contributors, which provides abundant resources, plugins, and support.

Possible disadvantages of Handlebars

  • Limited Logic
    The logic-less nature of Handlebars means it supports only very basic conditionals and loops, which can be limiting for complex scenarios.
  • Verbosity
    Handlebars templates can become verbose, especially when using custom helpers or partials extensively.
  • Initial Learning Curve
    For developers coming from more logic-oriented templating engines, adjusting to Handlebars' logic-less paradigm can take some effort.
  • Dependency Management
    In larger projects, managing dependencies between templates, partials, and helpers can become complex and cumbersome.
  • Lack of Reactivity
    Handlebars does not include built-in support for data reactivity, making it less suitable for dynamic, real-time updates compared to modern frameworks like React or Vue.

EJS features and specs

  • Simplicity
    EJS is easy to learn and use, especially for developers who are already familiar with JavaScript. The syntax is straightforward, making it a good choice for quick application development.
  • JavaScript Integration
    Since EJS templates are JavaScript files, you can seamlessly integrate JavaScript code, making it easy to manipulate data and use familiar JavaScript functions.
  • Lightweight
    EJS is a lightweight template engine, which makes it an optimal choice for applications where performance and simplicity are critical.
  • Flexibility
    Allows for the embedding of plain JavaScript within the templates, giving developers the flexibility to add logic directly in their HTML.
  • Partial Templates
    Supports partials, which help to reuse code snippets across different views, promoting DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principles.
  • Server-Side Rendering
    Supports server-side rendering, which can improve performance by reducing the amount of client-side processing needed.

Possible disadvantages of EJS

  • Limited Functionality
    Compared to more feature-rich template engines like Handlebars or Pug, EJS offers limited functionalities which might be a drawback for large, complex projects.
  • Debugging
    Debugging EJS templates can sometimes be challenging. Errors within templates can often be vague, making it difficult to trace the root cause.
  • Maintenance
    Embedding a lot of JavaScript within templates can make the code harder to read and maintain, especially as the complexity of the application grows.
  • Performance Overhead
    For very large and complex templates, EJS can introduce a performance overhead compared to more optimized template engines designed for high performance.
  • Community and Support
    While EJS has a reasonable user base, the community and support may not be as extensive as more popular alternatives like React or Vue.js.

Analysis of EJS

Overall verdict

  • Yes, EJS is considered good, particularly for projects where developers want ease of use and flexibility with JavaScript templating. It is lightweight, easy to learn, and integrates well with Express, a popular Node.js web application framework.

Why this product is good

  • EJS (Embedded JavaScript Templating) is popular because it provides a simple way to generate HTML markup with plain JavaScript. It allows for the embedding of JavaScript logic within your HTML templates, making it straightforward to use for those familiar with JavaScript. It's known for its efficiency in rendering templates and ease of integration with Node.js applications.

Recommended for

    EJS is recommended for developers building server-side web applications using Node.js and those looking for a simple, yet effective, templating solution. It is particularly suitable for small to medium-sized projects where dynamic content generation is needed and for teams that prioritize simplicity and performance.

Handlebars videos

MTB Handlebars: Our Top 5 Picks for 2018!

More videos:

  • Review - Roland Sands Handlebars Review at RevZilla.com
  • Review - KST Kustoms Handlebars Review

EJS videos

Kane Creek - Bestop Trail Review at EJS 2019

More videos:

  • Tutorial - JavaScript Templating Tutorial | Introduction To EJS

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Handlebars and EJS)
Javascript UI Libraries
60 60%
40% 40
Development
56 56%
44% 44
Tool
100 100%
0% 0
Localization
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Handlebars should be more popular than EJS. It has been mentiond 67 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Handlebars mentions (67)

  • Prompts should live outside.
    The fenced words can be identified and replacedโ€”just like in any templating language. If I were using Go, I could leverage the text/template package from the standard library. In the case of meta-frameworks like Next.js, which internally use Webpack to parse arbitrary languages (yes, JSX isnโ€™t really a language!), we could write a custom loader to convert raw prompt (or text) files into callable functions. This... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • `handlebars` package in Puck codebase.
    Checkout the official Handlebars docs site at https://handlebarsjs.com/ and the live demo at http://tryhandlebarsjs.com/. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Chapter 7: HTML part two
    For a more robust approach, we'd probably need to install a templating language of some kind, such as Twig, EJS, Handlebars, Pug or Mustache (this is not a complete list!). Reading the documentation for posthtml-modules, you'll notice it doesn't mention package.json or any of the approaches we've used in this guide. Instead, the examples are in JavaScript and we've advised to add this to our Node application. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to send emails using Express and NodeJS
    As suggested by a teammate, I found out that I'll need to create the template in a different file and then replace the variables in it using some utility. So, again after searching for some packages, I figured that Handlebars would be the best solution for our problem. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • The Features of Front-end UI Components
    In dynamic web pages, especially when using template engines such as Mustache and Handlebars or libraries/frameworks such as React and Vue, the final content structure is basically generated by JS, which strengthens JS and weakens the control of HTML over the content structure. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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EJS mentions (26)

  • Next.js vs Express: What to Choose in 2025?
    Express does not provide SEO benefits by default and would require additional configuration with tools like EJS (Embedded JavaScript) or Handlebars for server-side rendering. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Chapter 7: HTML part two
    For a more robust approach, we'd probably need to install a templating language of some kind, such as Twig, EJS, Handlebars, Pug or Mustache (this is not a complete list!). Reading the documentation for posthtml-modules, you'll notice it doesn't mention package.json or any of the approaches we've used in this guide. Instead, the examples are in JavaScript and we've advised to add this to our Node application. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Web Components and SSR - 2024 Edition
    Server-side Framework SSR is when you use a framework that runs the HTML templating logic entirely on the server to compose the HTML that will be rendered in the browser. These are frameworks like Ruby on Rails, ASP.Net, PHP, or even Node.js frameworks that use templating languages like Pug or EJS. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to Build an Application With Node.js
    We need a templating engine to render HTML code in the browser using Node.js. We'll use ejs (Embedded JavaScript) for this tutorial but there are others such as Pug (formerly known as Jade) and Express Handlebar, which also render HTML on the server. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Getting to the meat and potatoes of serverless recipe parsing with Amazon Bedrock
    The tags is where you put the HTML you want Claude to read. The <%- document %> contained within is an ejs placeholder. More on this shortly. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Handlebars and EJS, you can also consider the following products

Pug - Pug is a robust, elegant, feature rich template engine for Node.js

Mustache.js - Minimal templating with {{mustaches}} in JavaScript - janl/mustache.js

DeepL Translator - DeepL Translator is a machine translator that currently supports 42 language combinations.

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

Localazy - Forget all the hassle and make your app available in 80+ languages with the translation platform built for app developers.

Pugjs - Pugjs is an online platform that manages programming in the best way with powerful tools.